“Like dyslexia, DLD is a lifelong condition that requires age-appropriate support across the lifespan.” @tiffanyphogan SoRticle #18: Developmental Language Disorder: Syntactic Processing Difficulties are a Key Factor If you are not familiar with the work of Dr. Tiffany Hogan, you are missing out on a very important piece of the reading puzzle. As the Simple View of Reading Model (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) illustrates, reading comprehension is the product of decoding and language comprehension. So why don’t we screen for risk of language comprehension difficulties the same way we screen for risk of word reading difficulties? In Ontario Canada, we are mandated to screen for risk of word reading/decoding difficulties, which is half of the SVR model. But teachers rarely screen for risk of Language Comprehension difficulties, the other half of the SVR model. If students have difficulty understanding language, they will inevitably have difficulty understanding what they read. And as rely more heavily on Assistive Technology for students with reading difficulties, we have to remember that text-to-speech and other reading software that is commonly purchased by school districts will not help a child with DLD!!! Google speech-to-text may support students with decoding difficulties but it will not help a student who lacks syntactical awareness and lacks the vocabulary to understand what is read to them. This is a must read article from International Dyslexia Association: dyslexialibrary.org/perspect… #SoRticle #LanguageComprehension #DLD